COCKTAILS

WORLD'S TOP 10 COCKTAILS

1. NEGRONI

The story goes that while drinking in Florence’s Casoni Bar in 1919, Italy’s Count Camillo Negroni wanted something with a bit more oomph than his usual Americano (Campari, red vermouth and soda). A savvy bartender switched out the soda for gin and the rest is history. The cocktail’s (pictured) popularity has rocketed in recent years thanks to the craft gin movement and a resurgence of love for bitter flavours. But it’s also thanks to Italian bar staff dominating the world’s cocktail scene. After all, if this deep-red, bitter orange, boozy and refreshing drink is their choice of tipple after a long, hard shift, why wouldn’t it be your go-to as well?

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2. OLD FASHIONED

Nothing screams vintage drinking like ordering an Old Fashioned. This cocktail dates back to long before the Prohibition era, but also conjures up images of stylish sipping once America was well and truly off the wagon. When it was dreamed up at the start of the 19th century, this combination of whisky with bitters, sugar and water was simply referred to as the ‘Whisky Cocktail’ and was imbibed in the mornings – quite the reversal to its nightcap status these days. For best results, stir vigorously over ice and drink slowly. This cocktail deserves considered sipping.

3. MARTINI

If you heard that Sinatra was a Jack Daniel’s guy, you heard wrong. He was known to prop up the Savoy’s American bar with a Martini (pictured below) in hand, too. And James Bond famously drank his shaken, not stirred. It can be gin- or vodka-based, and you’ll likely find dozens of neo-martinis on the menus of modern cocktail bars, but the classic gin Martini can be loosely traced back to the mid to late 19th century, when it was made to the formula of six-parts gin, one part dry vermouth. Expect it in an extra-chilled martini glass with a twist of lemon or a green olive. And that shaken or stirred argument? We’ll lap it up, either way.

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4. MARGARITA

Ordering a Margarita (pictured below) is like saying ‘hola’ to party time. It’s a bold, citrusy drink with serious cojones thanks to a good slug of blanco tequila and a sour lime kick – triple sec adds a sweetness that takes the edge off, as does a customary salt rim on the glass. This Mexican staple became popular with Americans in the age of travel, and although many question whether an American or a Mexican invented the drink, nobody disputes that it was created firmly on Mexican soil. It’s now a global phenomenon with its own international day of celebration. Try a Tommy’s Margarita, which swaps out triple sec for agave syrup, the choice of hardcore tequila drinkers.

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5. MANHATTAN

Many bartenders pick the Manhattan as their favourite cocktail when it comes to their turn to order a drink for themselves. The New York classic is a strong, smooth drink with plenty going on – with a rye or bourbon base, a lick of sweet red vermouth, a dash of bitters and a maraschino cherry in its depths for a final reward when you reach the bottom (and go inevitably weak at the knees). Many contest The Manhattan Club’s claim to have created this epiphany of a drink in 1874.

6. DAIQUIRI

This refreshing rum tipple (pictured below) was created at the turn of the 20th century when Cuban-American relations were far more harmonious than they are today. The original blend of white rum with sugar and lime was invented by an American engineer in the iron-ore mines of a small Cuban town called Daiquirí. Jennings Stockton Cox’s creation spread in popularity both in Cuba (partly thanks to Hemingway) and back in the US, and has since morphed into fruity and frozen versions on cocktail menus around the world. But keep it as a straight-up classic and be rewarded with a refreshing, sour drink that shows off rum at its best and rightfully made the miners giddy.

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7. APEROL SPRITZ

Look back five years and Aperol was such a forgotten aperitif, you wouldn’t have even found it at the back of mum and dad’s booze cupboard. It’s now the toast of towns around the world thanks to its summer readiness when served in a Spritz. The Spritz cocktail is an Italian invention, based on an Austrian Spritzer, and interpretations of the drink include three key elements: wine, bitter flavour and bubbles. The Aperol Spritz (pictured below) looks as orange as the sun on steroids and that tartness is mellowed out with enough sweet notes to make this cocktail the perfect sparkling antidote to any heatwave.

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8. PISCO SOUR

This South American superstar (and the delight of many a gap year student; pictured below) only reached a global audience in recent years once exports of Peru’s national spirit, pisco, took off. Pisco is made from grapes and is a perfect bedfellow to lime, sugar syrup and egg whites, frothed up in a shaker to form a fluffy-topped tipple. A few dashes of bitters are added at the end to complete the formula. The Pisco Sour was created in Lima, but is the national drink of both Peru and Chile, and hugely popular across South America as a whole. World domination is surely in the offing.

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9. MOJITO

In the 1990s you couldn’t move for Mojitos, and although they’re still a popular order at the bar, you may just get an eye roll from a bartender scarred by those Mojito-mad days. The obsession is obvious – white rum, sugar, mint and soda make the ultimate summer refresher. Its origins are in Cuba, that much is for sure. But although Havana bar-restaurant La Bodeguita del Medio lays claim to its creation, it’s more likely it was concocted by slaves on the sugar cane fields or based on a drink popularised on Sir Francis Drake’s ship when passing through Havana. He was meant to sack them of their treasures, but instead he gave them liquid gold.

10. ESPRESSO MARTINI

There are few cocktails that draw such levels of fanaticism as the Espresso Martini (pictured below) – and that’s probably because its combination of caffeine and alcohol makes it the ultimate stimulant. In fact, that was practically its name for a stint, called the ‘Pharmaceutical Stimulant’ when first invented in London in the 1980s by the late Dick Bradsell. It was fabled that a supermodel – some guess at Naomi Campbell – requested a drink that would wake her up and then get her buzzing. Bradsell added a hot shot of espresso to vodka, coffee liqueur and sugar. It’s gained global cult status in a relatively short amount of time, and from just one sip, it’s easy to see why.

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THE 5 BEST GIN COCKTAILS

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1. NEGRONI

One part gin, one part red vermouth, one part Campari: all parts amazing. This red-hued cocktail hailing from Italy is served in a rocks glass over ice, with an orange peel or wedge for garnish. It’s a potent, refreshingly bitter tipple best enjoyed as an aperitif on a hot summer’s day.

2. MARTINI

One of the few drinks to have its own emoji, the Martini is pretty iconic. You’ll find it served every which way around the world, but the classic formula sees six parts gin and one part vermouth shaken or stirred with ice and garnished with a lemon peel or olive. Liquid perfection.

3. SINGAPORE SLING

Invented at Singapore’s world-famous Raffles hotel around the turn of the 20th century, this pink drink is the fruitiest, booziest blend of gin, cherry liqueur, Benedictine and Cointreau with lime juice, pineapple juice, grenadine and bitters. Whether today’s recipe rings true to the original is up for debate, but either way it tantalises the taste buds and Raffles’ bar has become a pilgrimage for its fans.

4. CLOVER CLUB

A marshmallowy pink drink created in Philadelphia before America was hit by Prohibition, the Clover Club has stood the test of time. Indeed, post-Prohibition, New York has a bar dedicated to it. It’s a combo of gin, lemon juice and raspberry syrup, with egg white giving the drink its frothy head.

5. AVIATION

A pre-Prohibiton classic (pictured) that’s essentially a gin sour, this cocktail was born in a time when air travel was the ultimate luxury – like the crème de violette that gives the drink its bright and dreamy violet colour; a rare ingredient when the drink was first conceived. It's mixed with gin, lemon juice and maraschino to form a floral and sour novelty.

THE 5 BEST WHISKY COCKTAILS

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1. OLD FASHIONED

Make like Don Draper and order an Old Fashioned (pictured), a drink that’s sophisticated as hell. Made using either bourbon or rye, muddled with sugar and stirred with ice, it’s served in a tumbler with a twist of orange. Its origins date back to the 1800s, making it one of the stone-cold classics.

2. MANHATTAN

Whisky, sweet vermouth and bitters collide in one of five cocktails named after the boroughs of New York City – this one is without a doubt the most famous of the quintet. It’s served in a cocktail or coupe glass and dressed with a boozy maraschino cherry bobbing in its depths.

3. WHISKY SOUR

Sours – like many drinks – were invented on the high seas, with citrus and sugar used to make spirits more palatable. And boy, were the Americans on to a winner when they made a whisky version. These days, find it with egg white for texture and a cherry and a wedge of orange for a decorative whiff of frivolous garnish.

4. SAZERAC

The naughty cousin to the Old Fashioned, the Sazerac is based on cognac, rye or bourbon, blended with sugar, a dash of absinthe and Peychaud’s Bitters – the creator of Peychaud’s came up with this cocktail as well as a formula for bitters. It’s one of the oldest cocktails on record and the official drink of New Orleans.

5. MINT JULEP

Almost 120,000 Mint Juleps are served each year at the Kentucky Derby since the tradition began in 1938, although this herbaceous drink was first made in Virginia for medicinal purposes. It’s a refreshing mix of bourbon, mint leaves and sugar, best served in a pewter cup.

THE 5 BEST VODKA COCKTAILS

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1. ESPRESSO MARTINI

A cocktail adored all over the world, the Espresso Martini is a modern tipple and the ultimate party drink thanks to a winning combination of booze and caffeine. Vodka and coffee liqueur are shaken over ice with fresh espresso. Some present-day interpretations use cold brew coffee instead of a hot shot.

2. BLOODY MARY

The Bloody Mary can be enjoyed any time of day, but is best known as the ultimate hair of the dog and breakfast of champions. Debate rages over whether it belongs to Paris or New York, but it has evolved to include the likes of tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, lemon, black pepper and celery salt.

3. MOSCOW MULE

You’ll recognise a Moscow Mule (pictured) from the copper vessel in which it’s commonly served. The vodka, ginger beer and lime concoction was created at Hollywood’s Cock ’n’ Bull restaurant in 1948 – apparently, the team were trying to shift ‘a lot of dead stock’ from the cellar. No complaints here; it worked like magic.

4. COSMOPOLITAN

Carrie Bradshaw and co didn’t just boost sales of the Rampant Rabbit. Bar orders for Cosmopolitans rocketed on the back of Sex And The City’s TV success. It’s a suitably pink drink made from vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice and lime, which suited Carrie and her fashionista New York crowd to a tee.

5. WHITE RUSSIAN

More pop culture, with the White Russian popularised in the Coen Brothers’ movie The Big Lebowski, being the drink of choice of ‘The Dude’. But you don’t have to wear a dressing gown to enjoy this mix of vodka and coffee liqueur poured over ice and given a calorific cream float.

THE 5 BEST RUM COCKTAILS

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1. DAIQUIRI

Frozen or fruity riffs of this classic litter the menus of bars around the world, especially ones looking to turn up the heat. But the original version – invented by an American in Cuba’s mining town Daiquirí – is a refreshing mix of white rum, sugar syrup and lime juice served straight up.

2. MOJITO

The exact origins of this Havana concoction are hazy, but the results are as crisp and refreshing as drinking gets. White rum, lime juice, sugar syrup and mint leaves are topped with soda to create one of the world’s biggest selling and best known mixed drinks.

3. MAI TAI

A true Tiki recipe, the Mai Tai’s combination of aged rum with orange curaçao, lime, orgeat (almond) syrup and sugar syrup is island life in a glass. Most credit it to Trader Vic’s, a Polynesian restaurant in California where a Tahitian guest exclaimed ‘mai tai roa aé’ after one sip, which loosely translates as ‘out of this world!’

4. PIñA COLADA

How many drinks have a song named after them? That’s how iconic this sweet summer blend (pictured) is, a retro Puerto Rican concoction that sees pineapple, rum and cream of coconut meet. If you’re not drinking it from a pineapple on a beach (or at least with a cocktail umbrella), you’re probably doing it wrong.

5. DARK AND STORMY

If legend is to be believed, an old sailor compared this drink’s colour to the storm clouds. The ‘dark’ is dark rum and the ‘stormy’ is ginger beer, and it’s served in a highball with a squeeze of lime. It’s the unofficial drink of Bermuda and has been trademarked by Bermuda rum brand Gosling’s in most parts of the world.

AND LET'S NOT FORGET... TEQUILA, PISCO ET AL

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1. MARGARITA

Mid-20th century and the popularity of Mexico’s Margarita began to spread, although nobody truly knows where it came from. One thing’s for sure, it’s a fiesta in a glass, made from tequila, orange liqueur and lime, and often served with a salt rim around the glass. ¡Ay caramba!

2. APEROL SPRITZ

Venice’s ultimate cooler-downer, the Aperol Spritz has become synonymous with summer. It’s made from bright orange and bitter aperitif Aperol, which is mixed to the formula ‘three-two-one’: three parts white wine (prosecco is most popular), two parts Aperol, one part soda. Garnish with orange for a heatwave-ready, luminous tipple.

3. PISCO SOUR

Peru and Chile’s national drink, the Pisco Sour began life in Lima. It’s much like the whisky sour before it, but sees Peruvian spirit pisco (a local grape brandy made around the town of Pisco) used as the base, with lime, sugar and egg white shaken in. Three drops of bitters are added to a frothy head to give its signature look.

4. CAIPIRINHA

Lime and sugar are muddled together before adding ice and cachaça – a Brazilian spirit made from fresh sugar cane – to this tall, refreshing cocktail that originated in São Paulo. The drink soared in popularity around the world in 2016, thanks to Rio’s Olympic Games.

5. PALOMA

While the Margarita has a global audience, it’s the Paloma (which means ‘dove’ in Spanish; pictured) that the Mexicans drink more avidly. Tequila, lime and fresh grapefruit juice served in an icy tumbler quenches the thirst in a recipe straight from the town of Tequila. It was first made at tequila pilgrimage bar La Capilla.

WORLD’S TOP 10 COCKTAIL BARS

1. SMUGGLER’S COVE, SAN FRANCISCO

‘No pastime makes the stars so bright, as greeting dusk with rum’s delight,’ says a sign at Smuggler’s Cove. Staff are known as ‘crew’, fishing nets suspend sea debris and Hawaiian shirts abound. It may look like Captain Jack Sparrow’s holiday home, but it’s far from naff, with the largest collection of rum in North America (over 700 expressions) and a cocktail list that reads like a history of the sugar cane spirit. This could be the finest modern take on the Tiki bar trend.

2. EL FLORIDITA, HAVANA

From its flamingo-pink exterior to its ubiquitous salsa rhythms, El Floridita is unmistakably Cuban. It’s been around for 200 years, yet has a feel of the 1950s, a golden age when Constante Ribalaigua ran the show – known as ‘the cocktail king’ and inventor of the frozen Daiquiri. This was also the era that Ernest ‘Papa’ Hemingway could regularly be found propping up the bar with a Daiquiri in hand. Today’s cantineros (bartenders) in red blazers make around 3000 daiquiris a day for well-dressed locals as well as tourists. Take yours at the bar beside the life-size bronze statue of Hemingway.

3. THE AMERICAN BAR AT THE SAVOY, LONDON

The Savoy hotel’s iconic white-walled, retro-carpeted bar has stayed fairly faithful to its art deco origins, despite a mega-dollar hotel refurb in 2010. It has a mini museum at the foot of its entrance dedicated to the bar’s rich history – and its very rich drinkers – and its cocktail menu reads like a who’s who of Hollywood, with glitzy drinks dedicated to stars who have propped up the bar for 125 years. Staff in white suits have become celebrities in their own right, including Harry Craddock, the author of The Savoy Cocktail Book – bartenders reference his 1930 tome to this day.

4. HIGH FIVE, TOKYO

There’s no menu at High Five, so it stands out from hundreds of fellow Ginza bars. Grab one of 12 seats at the bar and chat to Hidetsugo Ueno (described as ‘the godfather of bartending’ by famous US restaurateur and documentary maker David Chang), who whips up bespoke cocktails according to personal tastes. The bar stocks more than 200 whiskies, yet it’s ice that’s treated with reverence – carved into cubes for considered cocktail shaking (a ‘hard shake’ that moves ice more dynamically) or into ‘ice diamonds’, which dazzle in drinks.

5. BAR HEMINGWAY, PARIS

This cosseted space within Paris’ Ritz Hotel attracts a sharp crowd often lured back by charming, white-suited bartender Colin Field. He’s been here for 24 years, revived the French 75 cocktail and created the revolutionary Clean Dirty Martini – a dry martini with a Mediterranean flavour thanks to a mystifyingly clear ice cube made from olive juice. Yet despite his cocktailing prowess, Colin claims his love of English literature got him the gig. The bar (like many!) was a Hemingway haunt, and walls are decorated with hand-written letters from the legend. Decadent drinks cost €30 each.

6. CLOVER CLUB, NEW YORK

Look to Clover Club for the definition of a neighbourhood bar, a Brooklyn hangout in its 10th year of twisting the classics. It’s a narrow, buzzy room that has a cosy nook at the back with its own fireplace. It’s a modern reimagining of Philadelphia’s Clover Club, where lawyers and journalists would toast with the eponymous pink cocktail. Owner Julie Reiner’s iconic version adds a splash of dry vermouth. Fellow pre-Prohibition classics on the menu include cobblers and punches.

7. NATIVE, SINGAPORE

Plenty of column inches have been dedicated to Antz, a cocktail on Native’s menu that includes creepy crawlies. It exemplifies the bar’s approach to using locally foraged ingredients – less shocking are curry leaf and turmeric – and local spirits, in a bar that cares just as much about terroir as the world’s top wineries. Founder Vijay Mudaliar also looks to the latest technologies, using a rotavap to distil subtle aromas such as pink jasmine into his creations.

8. BLACK PEARL, MELBOURNE

It’s a family affair at Black Pearl; when Tash Conte founded the Fitzroy bar, she worked with her sister in the bar, her mother and brother were in the kitchen and her father kept the books. Fifteen years on, Conte still refers to the team as family, even though it’s evolved to include world-class mixologists. Mum Mariane’s sausage rolls are still on the menu and banter at the bar is ever-present, which makes the bare-brick space feel homely.

9. LA CAPILLA, TEQUILA

On a dusty road in a town called Tequila is La Capilla (‘The Chapel’), a sacred ground for agave lovers. It’s rustic, with adobe walls, plastic chairs and nothing in the way of signage. Focus is on hospitality – owner Don Javier Delgado Corona, now in his nineties, serves distillery owners and farm workers, who are all welcomed to write in a visitors' guestbook. Here, Don Javier invented the Paloma cocktail (tequila, grapefruit, lime), but the bar’s signature creation is La Batanga (tequila, lime and cola), which he characteristically stirs with a butcher’s knife.

10. NOTTINGHAM FOREST, MILAN

For cocktail pomp and ceremony there’s Nottingham Forest. Despite the name, this bar in Milan looks every bit the wood-clad Brit pub (albeit with plants, animal prints and Buddha statues). Drinks are just as original, many requiring audience participation. Sip on test-tube Negronis or knock back pills, powders, potions, airs and emulsions. It’s molecular mixology at its best, with owner Dario Comini considered on a par with Italy’s best chefs.